Sunday, September 30, 2012

By any measure you’d have to label yesterdays Main Street Music Festival in Ellicott City a success. The
weather was perfect, the music was great and the crowds showed up.

Since I live just a little over a mile from Main Street, I was
able to make two visits to the festival. I first stopped down a little after
noon, just as things were getting underway. I easily snagged a parking space on
the street right in front of Ellicott Mills Brewing Company. From there I
walked down to the B&O Stage. While listening to acoustic artist
Brian Kelm I also chatted briefly with the representatives of CSX. CSX, along
with Heavy Seas, Metanoia, Ellicott Mills Brewing Company, Indigo Ink and the Ellicott
City Business Association were the sponsors of the event.

Back up at the Heavy Seas Stage in the Wine Bin Parking lot
I caught the performance of Root Three before heading back home for awhile.

When I returned to Ellicott City
around 4:00 PM there were many more people than earlier but I still found a
parking with relative ease. It does help that, as an EC loco, I happen to know a few places that the casual visitor might pass by.

This time I dropped in on the Ellicott Mills Stage in
Parking Lot D where Chris Wojtal and the Hilltown Getdown were performing. I
noticed that the beer line was a lot longer than it was earlier too. On the
other hand a beer line is always an easy place to start up a conversation with
strangers. While patiently awaiting my turn I met a woman who told me that she
and her husband rode their bikes to the festival from their home in Catonsville, a little over a mile away. I suggested to
her that ride home, being mostly uphill, would be a little less fun.

Back across the street at the HeavySeas
stage I wrapped up the day listening to Dirty Secret, just as the beer ran out.

Friday, September 28, 2012

When I read that a statewide economic development bus tour
was going to make its last stop at Merriweather Post Pavilion today it piqued my curiosity. This was the first I’d heard of it. Unbeknownst to me until today, a bus equipped with a
recording studio, has been traveling around the state for the past three weeks
inviting entrepreneurs and would be entrepreneurs to hop on the bus and record
a pitch for their idea. The objective is then to take these budding businesses
and try and connect them with resources.

According to this story in The Washington Post, “participants
meet and receive feedback from top business leaders and have the opportunity to
record a four- to six-minute business pitch inside the bus studio.”

“A panel of business professionals will judge the entries
and choose several to advance to the next round. The winners will fine-tune
their pitches for showcase at the Entrepreneur Expo, an event on Nov. 13
sponsored by the Maryland Technology Development Corp., or TEDCO.”

One of the major sponsors of the tour was our own Economic Development Authority, so naturally the county exec was on hand this afternoon
to celebrate it’s conclusion in front of a group of approximately 100 people. The reception was held in the orchestra pit in front of the main stage and included a cash bar. Laura Nueman, the CEO of the HCEDA, introduced Ken as “our next governor.”

“Next year I’d like to see a thousand people here,” he told
the assembled business people. I couldn't but think that free drinks might help
that, particularly free drinks from Marylandbrewers and vintners.

It seems like that would be a nice way to showcase some of Maryland's successful entrepreneurs too.

Last night I had the good fortune to be a guest of St. John Properties in their suite at M&T Bank stadium for the Ravens game. The
experience of watching a game in one of these suites is decidedly different
that the average fan experience and the opportunity is one not lightly passed up. Apropos for a real
estate company (you know, the whole location, location, location thing), the
St. John Properties suite is right on the fifty yard line.

More importantly last night, even in the outside seats, we were out of the rain.

Not long after the game started I heard my name called from
the governor’s suite next door and was surprised to see Pam and Guy Guzzone in
the front row. At half time I went over to chat with Pam while Guy was up
inside the suite schmoozing.

“This is the first time I've ever attended a major sports
event’” she told me.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Earlier this week HoCo blogger Duane St. Claire took issue
with Raven’s fans behavior during the nationally televised Sunday night game
against the Patriots. He wrote that he “couldn't help but think that this isn't
something that I would want my kids to experience.”

If his kids weren’t in bed when that chant started late in the
fourth quarter then they are likely old enough to have heard
much worse in their own schoolyard, or even in the current presidential race.

It isn’t like this happens all the time either. Ravens fans
are hardly the most rowdy fans in the NFL. A ranking of rowdy fans earlier this year by
Bleacher Report put the Baltimore
crowd at nine out of fifteen. It takes a lot to provoke us to profanity and after three plus quarters of bad calls by the NFL's replacement officials we were simply pushed over the edge.

I suspect that all football fans watching all across the
nation empathized with the Baltimore
fans late Sunday night too. The bad officiating in this game was merely a prelude to the debacle
on the Monday night game between the Seahawks and the Packers.

Perhaps this just isn’t Duane’s sport. That’s okay but his
criticism of the Baltimore
football fan behavior is simply unfair. After all, you’ll never see me complaining about
the smell of patchouli at a hootenanny.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

While doing some research for my Business Monthly column
tonight, I ran across a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center just before
Facebook went public this summer. The highlights:

Average
number of friends: 229

Percentage
of friends that were high school acquaintances: 22%

Percentage
of friend requests that are accepted: 80%

63% of
Facebook users have unfriended someone in the last year, up from 56% the
year before.

I happen think the unfriending trend is directly related to the
increase in nasty political status updates, which also happens to be the main
theme of my column.

I also ran across this post from earlier this month by
Jennifer Moire on the AllFacebook blog in which she discloses that “Facebook
identified which states were buzzing about which candidates using its “Talk
Meter” tool.”

The top five states “buzzing” for Romney are: 1) Utah; 2) Washington, DC; 3) Florida; 4) Massachusetts; 5) North
Carolina.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

This evening, while waiting for a friend at local watering
hole, I struck up a conversation with the person sitting next to me at the bar.
In relatively short order I found out that she was a teacher in the HoCo loco
school system.

Monday, September 24, 2012

The anti bullying effort seems to attracting a cadre of what
one loco wag calls “tragedtunists,” someone who sees opportunity in tragedy. First
there was Brian Meshkin with this shtick and then, late last week, I spotted
this sign on the back of a car on Dobbin
Road, promoting something called Breaking the Silence Now. The only thing on the website so far is the name and address of a
guy in Hagerstown and something called My Best Friends Magazine.

The problem with these self promotion efforts is that they
take away from the serious efforts like the one launched by the Columbia
Association and the HoCo library with an assist from Ray Rice. If these
tragedtunists really wanted to do something about bullying they could just as
easily get behind an effort like this rather than attempting to turn the
spotlight on themselves.

As we were leaving the Maryland Renaissance Festival yesterday, I stopped and asked a period dressed hostess how many people had
passed through the gates that day.

“We had somewhere between twenty-two and twenty-five thousand revelers in the village today,” she replied.

I knew it was a big crowd but I didn’t realize it was that
big. I wondered if that was close to some kind of record.

“No. We once got pretty close to thirty thousand,” and
added, “that was a lot of people.”

I thought twenty-two thousand was a lot of people but the
weekend period village
of Revel Grove is spread
out over 25 acres so it never felt claustrophobic. If anything, the large number
of attendees made the overall experience more festive.

Some of those attendees go all out in getting into the whole medieval
spirit thing.

There were lots of things that made us laugh too. Who knew
the 16th century could be so funny?

The wooded setting is perfect too. Yesterday it was cool
under the trees yet warm in the open air spots near the Kings Field jousting
arena. This is one of the few places you can go to enjoy Maryland’s official sport.

There is a HoCo connection too. The festival began in 1976 on
what was then undeveloped land behind Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, some of which
is now the Village of Hickory Ridge and the interchange of Broken Land Parkway and Route 29. It moved to Crownsville in 1985 where it could
finally erect structures that could stay in place year round.

The 36th Maryland Renaissance Festival runs every
weekend up until October 21st. If you plan on going, plan on going
early. The gates open at 10:30 AM and by 11:30 the traffic begins to clog up
the two lane roads leading to the site.

If you haven’t been, it is well worth the price of
admission, especially on those gorgeous fall days like yesterday.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

When I saw this post on HoCo Rising this morning I smiled.
Earlier this week Peanut forwarded me the link to the video that inspired the
midshipmans spirit dance as her latest Peanuts Picks. I told her I’d put it up
on To2C over the weekend.

Some may think that being the lone Republican on the five
person county council is an exercise in futility. Being one against four would seem to make it easy to be ignored, unless that lone Repub is a
fox, as in Greg Fox. The fifth district council person has managed to make his
role larger than the odd man out. This particular councils preference for
unanimous consent on most issues gives Greg an opportunity to exert influence
beyond his minority stature. That speaks well for both parties and gives county
politics more balance that you might expect from a Dem dominated council.

It helps of course that Greg is no career politician. He has
a real job with Constellation Energy in addition to his part time council job.
I marvel at how it handles it. For example, before appearing on our podcast
yesterday afternoon, Greg began his day at a LeadershipHowardCounty
kick off breakfast before heading to work in Baltimore. He then he came back to HoCo for
our podcast, followed by a meeting with his boss back in Baltimore, then back
to HoCo for his son’s soccer game, followed by an off tape appearance on
Politics Unplugged with Bob & Kendall Ehrlich which airs tomorrow morning
at 10 on WMAR Channel 2.

I got tired just writing all that!

We talked with Greg about the latest HoCo loco news, the
loco GOP political scene and his recent stint as a delegate to the Republican
National Convention in Tampa.
He told us he did not wear a silly hat, though he did hesitate for a moment when asked the question.

You can listen to this weeks episode of “and then there’s
that…” here.

Friday, September 21, 2012

The unemployment rate in HoCo currently stands at 5.5%, down
slightly from the same period last year and still significantly below the
national rate (8.1%). During the same period of time the total number of jobs
in the county rose 4.3% to 159,503.

These numbers were reported in the September 2012 issue of
Howard County Maryland Economic Indicators, a joint publication of the HowardCounty
government and the Howard County Chamber of Commerce. The report tracks data
through June.

HoCo also experienced a slight drop in office space vacancy
from 13.9% to 13.8% which occurred in spite of an additional half million
square feet being added to the market. HoCo now has over 11.5
million square feet of office space.

Other loco economic highlights include a 7.5% increase in personal income
tax receipts and a 93.7% increase in Planning and Zoning fees, though building
permits declined 16.9% from the same period last year.

It’s been a good year so far for HoCo agriculture too with
soybean and corn expected to produce record crops. “Beef milk and bread prices
are expected to increase in the long term due to increases in feed prices
resulting from the Midwestern drought.”

This release of this report comes at the same time we learn
that HoCo remains one of the top ten richest counties in the country. Seven of
the nations richest counties are in the DC metro area, with HoCo in the number
5 spot, down two places from last year. According
to this story by Carol Morello in The Washington Post, “Maryland has the nation’s highest household income level,
and Virginia
is ninth.”

“The rankings in the 2011 American Community Survey released
Thursday expand Washington’s
dominance among high-income households, reflecting a regional economy that was
largely cushioned as the recession yanked down income levels elsewhere.
Household incomes rose in most counties around Washington last year, even as they continued
to sink around the country.”

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Recent visitors to To2C may have received a warning message from
Google about malware on the site. It turns out that the feed from the Well
& Wise blog was the culprit. Once I disabled the Well & Wise feed, the problem went away.

According to the Google report on the Well & Wise site , “Of the 227 pages we tested on the site
over the past 90 days, 17 page(s) resulted in malicious software being
downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited
this site was on 2012-09-19, and the last time suspicious content was found on
this site was on 2012-09-19.”

“In some cases, third parties can add malicious code to
legitimate sites, which would cause us to show the warning message.”

No doubt someone has hacked into this blog and created this mischief.
The Well & Wise blog is a joint effort of the HowardCountyGeneralHospital and the HowardCounty
library. I notified them of the problem this morning via facebook.

The Bright Minds Foundation has teamed up with the Howard
County Public School System to help bridge the digital divide in the county.
According to Paul Brown, a Bright Minds board member, approximately 2,000
students in HoCo do not access to a computer at home.

That’s a real impediment to learning, not mention parental
involvement the process. The HoCo schools Aspen system allows parents to check academic progress on a daily basis, including
homework assignments and test results. Without a computer in the home these
families are at a distinct disadvantage.

Paul pointed out that use of the free computers in the
library is limited to fifteen minutes, hardly enough time to conduct serious
research. For some of these students even getting to the library is a problem.

The foundation accepts used computers but Paul pointed out
that it costs, on average, three hundred bucks to refurbish a donated computer.
In other words, monetary donations are preferred.

To date, Bright Minds has provided 400 computers to HoCo
families. Their goal is to close the digital divide in three years.

In any event, I actually do try to keep an open mind on these things.
Last month I sent Frank email inviting him to join us on and then there’s that…
to discuss how he “came to support the governor’s legislation in the recent
special session.”

He never responded.

I can understand why Frank may not feel comfortable
discussing this hot issue on our podcast but you’d think he’d at least give us
the courtesy of a response.

Perhaps the delegate who proclaims that he "carries no mans
water" would feel a little uncomfortable discussing how he ended up carrying Mike Millers canteen. Maybe he thought that by ignoring us we’d just forget about
this and move on.

That’s not going to happen. Someone should probably tell him
that we make more hay out of guests who turn us down than those who don’t. We reserve special treatment for those who won't even respond to our request. It
looks like we’ll be having fun with Frank for awhile.

The Comptroller of Maryland isn’t afraid to discuss the
gambling issue with us. Peter Franchot is returning to the show for a second
time on November 2nd, the Friday before the election.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Last Friday we attended the preseason game for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. The evening featured a sampling of the offerings of the
forthcoming season which gets underway this Thursday.

I used the sports analogy because in addition to our beloved
Orioles and Ravens, the BSO is a major league team. We are indeed fortunate to
have a world class orchestra with an “elite” conductor less than a half hours
drive from HoCo.

Marin Aslop rocks. If you haven’t seen her put the orchestra
through its paces, and you love music as I do, you owe it to yourself to catch
at least one of their concerts.

There is a real HoCo connection to the BSO too, as a few of
the orchestra members make their home here and contribute to the HoCo loco
music scene as well. For instance, according to her bio on the orchestra
website, violinist Wonju Kim is “a founding member of Music in Common,
a Columbia-based concert series devoted to building new audiences for chamber
music that was created by her late husband, Daniel Malkin.”

Monday, September 17, 2012

Last Friday I took Peanut shopping on Main Street in Ellicott
City. One of the first stores we stopped in was Zebop. As Peanut
was looking around I struck up a conversation with the person behind the counter. “Are you
excited about what Ray Rice is doing for Ellicott City,”
I asked.

Zebop has their own coolness thing going on. As we left the store I noticed
that the Zebop shopping bag appeared to be handmade from a foreign language newspaper. When we sat down
to enjoy a smoothie across the street, we discovered a tag inside the bag
telling the story.

“Our newspaper bags [are] made by an NGO whose main
objective is to provide education and shelter to street children. This eco-friendly
product is made from recycled Indian newspaper.”

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Friday afternoon I spotted two cyclists by the Grist Mill Trail with very unusual bikes. I made a u-turn and went back to check them out.

Trevor and Rebecca were riding something called an
Elliptogo, which is billed as more of a running device than a bicycle. They
told me that they had rented them for the weekend from Leisure Fitness in Columbia. Rebecca’s was an
eight speed and Trevors was a three speed.

They had just finished their workout so I was reluctant to
ask them to demonstate the bikes. Fortunately I found this video on You Tube.

Friday, September 14, 2012

Wegmans literally has the hots this weekend. As reported earlier by HowChow, the store is hosting a Hatch Chile Event today through
Sunday. If you like hot stuff, its worth checking out.

Today, as I stopped in to pick up a few grocery items, I
discovered Hatch Chili Peppers when offered a sample
of a Hatch pepper cheese spread. It was love at first bite. Hatch peppers are
sort of like jalapeño peppers except that the hot part sticks around for awhile
instead of the hit and run you get from jalapenos.

Before I finished shopping I had sampled a Hatch pepper stuffed
with Italian sausage, Hatch pepper cornbread, and a Hatch sushi roll. For lunch, I
treated myself to some Jambalaya with Hatch peppers at the prepared food bar.
Talk about in-store integrated marketing!

Out in front of the store they have a Hatch Chile pepper
roasting thing going on. I sampled some of those too. I also spoke briefly with
Frank (the guy in white shirt waving) who told me that they had already sold
four and half pallets of the peppers, each pepper pallet holding about 50 forty
pound boxes of peppers.(Try saying that three times fast.)

The news this week that CSX and the City of Baltimore had settled on a site for the
proposed intermodal terminal bought a sigh of relief to some people in
Elkridge. When state and railroad officials originally announced that a 90 acre
site in Hanover
was one of four finalists for the facility, residents organized to stop it.

They weren’t the only winners in this battle. As
Councilperson Courtney Watson pointed out to me early this week, the new
location in the MorrellPark area of the city will be a good deal less expensive. Initial estimates for the Hanover site put the total cost around $140
million with the state and feds picking up half the tab. The city site,
expanding an existing rail yard, is projected to cost $90 million with no
federal subsidy. The state has agreed to spend about $30 million on the
project. Because federal monies are not part of the new equation, the project
is no longer subject to the dreaded National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA) process which added time and additional costs. That has to be also considered
a win for CSX.

So what is to become of the Hanover site?

The land remains zoned M2, HoCo’s designation for heavy industry. Already, Aggregate Management Inc. (Laurel Sand and Gravel) is moving ahead with plans for a new asphalt plant on ten acres of the site that was previously optioned to CSX. With
the scarcity of M2 land in the corridor, it is unlikely that the balance of the
property will remain undeveloped much longer.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Back in May I got nailed by a speed camera on Caton Avenue in the
city. I was cited for doing 43 mph in a 30 mph zone. This particular location
defines the classic speed trap. I was nabbed as I came off the ramp from I-95,
headed downhill.

I seriously considered going to court to fight this. At the
very least I figured I could get a good story out of the experience.

Then again, it was only forty bucks. For forty bucks I
really couldn’t justify spending the time fighting city hall.

I suspect that is figured into the equation when the city sets the amount of the fine. It seems to be working out quite well for them too. According to this story by Luke
Broadwater in The Sun, Baltimore raked in “$20 million in revenue from speed
cameras over the past year — a higher-than-expected figure that is sparking
debate over the accuracy of the city's budget projections and whether the
camera program is more a cash cow than a safety measure.”

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

In our latest podcast, we briefly discussed the challenge that school
board candidates face in achieving name recognition. As these types of elections usually play out,
the candidate who creates the most controversy benefits from getting their name
batted about. As the saying goes, “I don't care what the newspapers
say about me as long as they spell my name right.” The theory being that when an uninformed voter goes into the booth and
sees a list of unfamiliar names, they are more likely to pick the name they've heard before, without considering what the context was that they heard it, good or bad.

To counter this candidates
are often reduced to standing on the side of busy roads waving signs.

This is a pretty
poor method for picking the people who oversee our public school system and one
of the largest employers in the county.

I’ve decided to try
something different this time around. Instead of writing and talking about the candidates that I
don’t like, I’m going to ignore them. I won’t write anything about them nor
will I mention them on the podcast. Instead, I’ll focus my energies on the
candidates that I believe will best serve our students, our teachers and those
who labor to keep our public school system one of the best in the nation.

Monday, September 10, 2012

HoCo has always had a split personality when it comes to the
big cities to the north and south of us. Some cheer the Ravens and the Orioles
while others root for the Nats and the Redskins. When traveling outside of the area
and asked where they’re from, some locos will say Baltimore while others will say DC.

As far as the Bureau of Labor Statistics is concerned however, HoCo
is part of Baltimore.
That means job growth at FortMeade gets attributed to the Baltimore Metropolitan
area as opposed to the Maryland
suburbs of DC.

Yesterday, in his column in The Washington Post, Robert
McCartney pointed out that job growth in “suburban Maryland
is lagging far behind” that of Northern Virginia and Washington, DC.

“The contrast in jobs performance is dramatic. Here are the
figures on how many full-time jobs each jurisdiction added in the 12 months
ended in July, according to the Bureau
of Labor Statistics:

Northern Virginia: 32,200
jobs (a 2.4 percent increase);

District of
Columbia: 10,000 (up 1.4 percent);

Suburban Maryland:
1,400 (up less than one-fifth of 1 percent).”

In the very next paragraph he points that employment increases in HoCo and AA counties aren't included into the suburban Maryland
numbers.

“Those counties are gaining jobs as military intelligence
facilities expand in and around FortMeade, just 28 miles from the White House — but
they’re counted as part of greater Baltimore.
Northern Virginia includes counties such as Spotsylvania,
more than 50 miles away.”

Now before you start railing about Maryland
being overly dependent on federal spending remember that Northern
Virginia and DC are just as dependent on those federal dollars we
are, especially DC.

On the other hand, we could still stand to be a bit more
business-friendly in the Free State,
even if we are solid blue.

“The fact is, Northern Virginia’s
advantage has been growing for years, and has been fostered by both Republicans
and business-friendly Democrats.”

Sunday, September 09, 2012

Yesterday as I was driving and listening to Car Talk on
WAMU, one of the callers to the show identified himself as “Troy
from ColumbiaMaryland.”

It’s not everyday that you hear a HoCo loco on the nationally
syndicated show. Troy told Tom and Ray Magliozzi that he was the owner of a
1999 Mecury Mystique with a starter that “periodically makes a grinding sound”
when he starts it or attempts to start it.

Saturday, September 08, 2012

On the podcast this week, we noted that it was the third
time that Tom Coale had joined us on the show. It turns out that we miss
counted. It was actually the fourth time in the three years that we’ve doing
this show that Tom has sat down to chat with Paul and I.

We obviously like having Tom on the show.

The fun thing about Tom is that he enjoys talking about the
HoCo loco politico scene as much as we do and he really knows his stuff.

The big loco politico news this week was the announcement
that long serving ultra lib Liz Bobo will not be standing for reelection in
2014. Liz has been in elected office in HoCo since 1977, beginning on the
county council, then as county executive and finally as a Delegate to the
General Assembly since 1995.

Whether you agree with her politics or not, that’s a pretty
impressive run.

The big question is who will take her place. Immediately
after the announcement, Mary Kay Sigaty’s name was mentioned as the logical successor.
Tom disagrees. Tom thinks that Mary Kay will hold on to her council seat
through at least the first phase of the downtown Columbia redevelopment. She was the sponsor of the enabling legislation for the redevelopment, a role that put her at odds
with her one time sponsor, Liz Bobo.

Friday, September 07, 2012

The Census Bureau now has its own app. It’s called America’s
Economy and its bound to become a must have for politico wonks and econ wonks alike

I downloaded it this morning

According to this story by Carol Morello in The Washington
Post, the app “provides updated statistics from the Census Bureau, the Bureau
of Economic Analysis and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It includes 16 monthly
economic indicators, such as house sales, personal income, international trade,
Gross Domestic Product and the unemployment rate.”

“The app is the latest step the census has taken to use the
Internet more in both collecting and disseminating statistics. Last month, the
White House cited the Census Bureau as an example of a federal agency that is
“making great strides towards putting a solid foundation for a 21st Century
digital government in place.”

America’s
Economy is free and available for iPhones, iPads, and Android devices.

Thursday, September 06, 2012

I readily confess to being a bit of weather geek. Last
winter I even installed my own home weather station. This summer I relocated the stations monitoring devices because I wasn't satisfied with the readings I was getting. When any
storm approaches, I constantly monitor multiple online weather sources in
addition to my own set up.

Winter is high season for us weather geeks. Around this time of year, many us begin to consume whatever weather data we can get our hands on to try and figure
what type of winter Mother Nature has in store for us.

It looks like it could be a cold one. Accordiing
to this article by Scott Dance in The Sun, the “ forecast calls for cold
weather and large systems of moisture to converge, dumping above-average snow
totals along the East Coast. The timing is expected to be in January and February.”

The Farmers Almanac agrees, predicting that eastern states “as
far south as the GulfCoast – will see snowier
than normal conditions and cooler temperatures.”

“We are “red flagging” February 12–15 and March 20–23 for
major coastal storms along the Atlantic seaboard; storms bringing strong winds
and heavy precipitation.”

Red flagging!

That’s music to a weather geeks ears.
Perhaps we’ll even see a return of The Big Kahuna.

Wednesday, September 05, 2012

On Saturday, September 29th, the historic
district of Ellicott City will play host to the inaugural Main Street Music Fest, a day
long showcase of forty of the area’s best unsigned musicians in conjunction
with the annual Fall Festival.

The music fest will feature blues, acoustic, alternative,
classic rock, pop, reggae and more, at five separate venues along Main Street including two outdoor stages.
The line up so far includes: Sons Of The Radio (Rock), Victims of Experience (Rock),
Sin 4 Sin (Rock), Cafe LaMotta (Pop), Yo No Say (Rock), The Control (Alternative),
Velma, (Alternative), Mark Whiskey and the Sours (Americana), The Vault (Rock),
Radiant Sonance (Electro/Dance), Garrett Anderson (Singer/Songwriter), Chasing
Scarlette (Alternative).

It will be a good day for loco beer lovers too. One of the
sponsors of the music fest is Heavy Seas and their brews will
be available at discounted prices throughout the town.

The action will begin at 1:00 PM and its free. To keep
updated on the bands that will be participating, check out the festival facebook page.

Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Yesterday we took a casual stroll around downtown Ellicott City and took note of a couple of changes in the
historic district retail scene.

The first thing that caught my attention was this small
chalkboard sign at the former Yates Grocery Store on Main Street. I’m assuming that Randy and
Steve are Steve Archuleta and Randy Neely, the owners of the Good Life Market which closed in December 2010.

A few doors down Retropolitan is having a moving sale. After
nine years on Main Street
the store is relocating to West Annapolis.

Around corner, in Parking Lot D, we noticed a sign in the
window of the former Man Cave space that read “Coming
Soon Matcha Time Café.” When I got back home and did a search of the name I found that HowChow had already picked up on this back in June. His restaurant radar is much better than mine. According to this story by Brandi Jefferson in Patch, Matcha
Time “will be a Japanese Tea House. Expect a selection of teas, pastries, a few
coffee varieties and a retail section with Japanese crafts.”

Monday, September 03, 2012

Back in January I wrote that the collapsed wall in Parking Lot
C in Ellicott City would be repaired sometime
in the spring.

I was only off by a year.

The wall below Dohony Hall, part of St. Paul’s Church,
collapsed in the aftermath of the Tropical Storm Lee that hit Ellicott City two
years ago. Since then the hill has been temporarily stabilized with rocks and jersey
walls until a more permanent solution could be devised. The job is further
complicated by the precarious position of the 18th century stone
building hanging on the edge of the collapse.

According to this story by Brandi Jefferson in Patch, "the
county is negotiating with St.
Paul’s Church on a plan that would ensure the
safety of the Dohony Hall building, which sits a few feet from the area where
the ground gave in during Tropical Storm Lee last September.”

The bottom line is that the parking spaces where six cars
were once buried under the rocks will be gone forever. The new wall will extend
out into the parking lot further than the old wall.

As a side note, during the trail derailment cleanup last month, this location was Ellicott City’s own version of television hill. It seemed like every media outlet in the region had a satellite truck in St. Paul’s parking lot and a camera crew on the hill.

This isn’t the only wall getting replaced either. The train derailment also took down an old stone wall in Parking Lot D. It’s likely that
this wall replacement will also take away some parking spaces.

A third wall is on the county’s radar too. The stone wall
behind the Ellicott Mills Brewing Company in Parking Lot E hasn’t collapsed yet
but from the looks of things, it could only be a matter of time.

All of this could take some time. Replacing old
stone walls in the historic district is a bit of a process

Sunday, September 02, 2012

In a comment made to this post, school board member Brian Meshkin took me to task for a post I wrote last year about Salugen, his former company.
Brian stated that the “post is premised
on, and filled with, falsities.”

This weekend I decided to spend some time trying to find out
what I got wrong. In doing so, I ended up with more questions than answers
about what actually went on with Salugen.

Here is what both Brian and I agree on. In July of 2008, the company was sold to Sherbrooke Equity AG of Switzerland. A
press release on October 6, 2008 announced
the sale.

SAN DIEGO,
CA, October 06, 2008 /24-7PressRelease/ --
Salugen (http://www.salugen.com),
a life sciences company, announces today that it has been acquired by an
affiliate of Switzerland-based investment bank, Sherbrooke Equity (http://www.sherbrookeequity.com).
The acquiring entity has been renamed Salugen AG and will be based in Zurich, Switzerland.

"We believe that Salugen is the company of our future, as addiction along
with other issues run rampant in our communities, both here and abroad. They
can help to shed light on the problem and create solutions to these issues in
our lives," said Lee Leblanc, Managing Director of Sherbrooke Equity AG.
Specific terms of the transaction were not announced but the Company announced
that the transaction would be accretive to Salugen shareholders and would
address debt holders of the company as well.”

“All other key executives of the company, with the exception
of Brian Meshkin, CEO, also resigned. In accordance with Dr. Blum's agreement
with Salugen, all rights to the intellectual property portfolio primarily owned
by Dr. Blum and his research associates reverted to Dr. Blum, principal of
Synaptamine, Inc. and other named patent holders. Key factors in the departure
of the management team were not specifically disclosed however, under Mr.
Meshkin's direction, Salugen was unable to raise capital, adequately perform
operational activities or compensate employees and vendors.”

“Your accusations, based on a fraudulent press release, about
alleged mismanagement of Salugen is also untrue. Dr. Blum was terminated
from Salugen a year earlier due to his own character issues preventing him from
passing due diligence with an investment bank.”

You may note that the dates don’t match up. This won’t
be the first time in the Salugen story that this occurs.

In any event, Brian remained with the company and according
to his own posting on yatedo.com, he “ Led the company to an IPO (symbol:
SQZ.F) and exit for its initial investors in 4 years”

On To2C, he pointed out that the company went
public on October 4, 2008, “the day the world stock markets crashed.”

The company on the other hand, claimed to be doing well in spite of the
worldwide recession. Salugen issued a press release on April 13,2009 which
painted a picture of a company prospering.

“ZURICH, SWITZERLAND and SAN DIEGO, CA USA – April 13, 2009 –
Salugen® AG (www.salugen.com), a life sciences company, announces today the
successful listing of its stock traded on the FWB® Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse
(the Frankfurt Stock Exchange) under the symbol SQZ (FRA:SQZ.F). Last month
Salugen’s share price increased over 70 percent despite uncertain economic
times affecting the overall equity markets and is currently back on its listing
price.”

Brian says that “About one year later – in September 2009 –
the transaction was unwound. The public entity, whose stock symbol was
SQZ.F, owned by Sherbrooke Equity, was sold to a German auction company.”

To say that Salugen AG's demise seemed sudden would be a huge understatement. Two months prior to this “unwinding” Salugen issued the
following press release:

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND and SAN DIEGO, CA USA – July 7, 2009 –
Salugen® (SYMBOL: SQZ.F), a publicly-traded international life sciences
company, announces today the launch of its Salugen Medical Group (SMG) division
beginning in the State of California. In its first week on the market, the
Salugen System is being prescribed for dozens of patients suffering from a
specific excess craving disorder, namely narcotic tolerance and dependence. The
Salugen Medical Group’s first week revenues are over $200,000, and anticipates
2009 revenues in California
to exceed $2M.”

A month later the future looked even rosier:

“ZURICH, SWITZERLAND and SAN DIEGO, CA USA – August 17, 2009
– Salugen® (SYMBOL: SQZ.F), a publicly-traded international life sciences company,
announces today that it is on target to achieve its 2009 revenue forecast of $3
million USD based upon July 2009 actual revenues and its pipeline for August
and September.

At $3 million USD in 2009, the Company will have record high revenues. Over the
next twelve months, the Company’s revenue run rate will be in excess of $6
million USD. With the recent acquisition of the CraniYums consumer functional
candy product line building upon its prescription HAVEOS product in physician
offices, Salugen addresses a growing $18 billion market in the USA with its
clinically-proven anti-craving products in both medical and consumer markets.”

Oddly, the same press release referenced scientific studies
authored by Dr. Kenneth Blum, the guy whose character issues supposedly spooked
the same investment bank that was now touting his studies to support its claims.

Brian claims that after 2009, Sherbrooke
and the guys in Switzerland
no longer had anything to do with Salugen. Salugen AG and its stock symbol
(SQZ.F) morphed into other companies (Pactolus AG, Berger Investments AG and
Mioomy AG) that soon "unwound" as well. Mioomy AG a German online auction company
even listed Brian as a “member” as late as March of 2010. Brian says he was
unaware of that until today.

Saturday, September 01, 2012

Two months ago I wrote that the attempt by Susan Gray and
Paul Kendall to overturn fifteen years of HoCo zoning decisions was finally
over.

I was wrong.

After three years of losses in both federal and state courts, Kendall and Gray have been given yet another opportunity to make their
case. According to this story Arthur Hirsch in The Sun, “the Maryland Court of
Appeals agreed to consider whether the residents have the legal standing to
challenge years of decisions by several county agencies. The two argue that the
county's way of carrying out these actions deprived them of their right to
referendum, constrained their free speech and voting rights.”

"I feel passionate about it, the people involved feel
passionate about it," Susan B. Gray, the lawyer who represents one of the
residents in the appeal, said in an interview. "These are the most fundamental
rights we have."

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This is a personal web log about stuff around here. The opinions and views of the blogger are just that, opinions and views of the blogger, not the bloggers employer, parish priest, probation officer or anyone else for that matter. Comments posted here may be attributable to others. If the content presented here offends you in some way you are probably taking yourself too seriously. If it is journalism that you are looking for, buy a newspaper.